After quoting the sentiments of Dr. Gill, who gave a similar exposition of the vials, in 1752, Mr. Fuller proceeds with the text:

"And the first angel went, and poured out his vial upon the earth,' If by the earth be meant the continent, as France and Germany, especially the latter, we have certainly seen a succession of evils falling upon the men who had the mark of the beast;' first in France, and after that in Germany, grievous as the most noisome sores,' and like them indicative of a state of corruption and approaching dissolution.

"And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea.' If this vial respect the papal maritime nations, particularly Spain and Portugal, we have seen a commencement of things in those countries, but have not yet seen the issue. What it will be God knoweth ! Whether this or that political party prevail, it will be a plague, and a plague that will tend to accomplish the ruin of the antichristian

cause.

"And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters.' If these denote Italy and Savoy, these counties may be expected to be the scene of the next great convulsions which shall agitate Europe. And if it be so, it may be a just retribution for the blood of the Waldenses, which was there shed in shocking profusion, for many successive centuries.

"And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun. By the sun is undoubtedly to be understood the supreme secular government of what is called the holy Roman empire, which is denominated the beast, and distinguished by its carrying or supporting the harlot. Its scorching heat cannot be understood of the persecution of the faithful; for they would not blaspheme under it. It seems therefore to denote the galling tyranny by which the adherents of the beast will be oppressed, while yet they repent not of their deeds.

"And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast.' By the beast we have all along understood that secular government which, at the head of the other European governments, has supported the Papal Antichrist. This certainly has not been the imperial government of France, but of Germany, to which therefore the character of the beast belongs. The supporters of the Papal cause will eventually be confounded: darkness and anguish will come upon them. Yet being given up, like Pharaoh, to hardness of heart, they will continue to blaspheme the God of heaven, and will not repent of their deeds. These blasphemies, and this perseverance in impenitence are sure signs of its being the determination of Heaven to destroy them. Individuals may repent and escape; but as a community they are ap"pointed to utter destruction.

"And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates.' This vial, so far as respects the temporal dominion of Christ's enemies, possesses a final character; and seems partly to respect the overthrow of the Turkish power, signified by the 'drying up of the Euphrates,' and partly that of the Papal, signified by the battle of Armageddon.' The second part of this vial is the most tremendous. This is the last struggle of the beast and his adherents, and which will issue in their utter ruin. This is the great day of God Almighty; the same as the harvest and the vintage in chapter xiv. and the taking of the beast and the false prophet, in chapter xix.

"And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air.' The moral atmosphere of the world has long been polluted by false religion, from which it is the object of this vial to cleanse it as by a thunder storm; which thunder storm produces a great earthquake, and this the falling to pieces of the great antichristian city and other cities with it. The face of the world from hence becomes changed; and the wrath of God pursues, as by a terrible hail storm, the men who repent not of their deeds. And now a voice out of the temple of heaven, even from the throne of God is heard, saying, IT IS DONE! The threatening of the angel in chapter x. 7, is accomplished-the 1260 years are ended-THE MYSTERY OF GOD IS FINISHED-and now commences the Millennium !"

CHAPTER IX.

Review of the Controversy on Faith, with Brief Notices of Mr. Fuller's several Opponents-Rev. William Button-Rev. Dan TaylorRev. John Martin-Advocates of Hyper-calvinism-Rev. Archibald Maclean.

THE distinction which Mr. Fuller acquired among the theological writers of the day, arose chiefly from the talent which he displayed in controversy; for though his other writings were generally well received, and obtained an extensive circulation, yet in this department he particularly excelled. He was sometimes weary of disputation, and wished to decline it; but when the interests of truth invited him to the field, he seldom quitted it but with honour and success. He carefully took his station in some fixed, invulnerable principle, whence he annoyed the adversary, and bid defiance to his attacks. His understanding was not more powerful than rapid in its exercise, grasping a subject almost intuitively, and fixing on the point of an argument with singular precision and accuracy. As the talents of his opponents were various, and the subjects in debate more or less interesting, his polemical pieces of course possess different degrees of merit; and where the host was feeble, the conquest though decisive could not be eminent.

With respect to the present controversy, though it related more immediately to one particular class of Christians, it was pregnant with great practical results, and fully demanded by existing circumstances. At the time Mr. Fuller commenced a public profession of Christianity, and

entered on the work of the ministry, the state of the Baptist denomination in this country was truly deplorable. The writings of Hussey, Gill, and Brine,* were all in vogue and such was the veneration in which their names were generally held, that the system of doctrine which they contended for, almost universally prevailed; and their works, not the scriptures, became in effect the standard of orthodoxy. It is not affirmed, that there is nothing valuable in the writings of these authors; on the contrary it is readily admitted, that all the leading truths of the gospel are maintained in them. At the same time, it is manifest,

* The following remarks from the pen of Mr. Fuller himself, relative to this point, deserves insertion here.

"I believe no writer of eminence can be named before the present century, who denied it to be the duty of men in general to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of their souls. I think Mr. Hussey was the first person, who by the general tenor of his writings laid the foundation for this sentiment. And yet even Mr. Hussey did not, that I recollect, expressly avow it. On the contrary, he allowed it to be the duty of those who were not effectually called, to hear spiritually, and open their hearts to Christ; though, as he justly asserted, the preaching of this as their duty would not effect a cure.' Operations of Grace, p. 442.

"Mr. Hussey was doubtless a man of considerable eminence in some respects. Mr. Beart, in his Eternal Law and Everlasting Gospel, I think has given as fair and as candid an account of his writings as could well be given. But Mr. Hussey, though in some respects a great man, was nevertheless possessed of that warm turn of mind, which frequently misleads even the greatest of men, especially in defending a favourite sentiment.

"Mr. Brine is the only writer of eminence who has expressly defended the sentiment. Dr. Gill took no active part in the controversy. It is allowed that the negative side of the question was his avowed sentiment, and this appears to be implied in the general tenor of his writings. At the same time it cannot be denied, that when engaged in other controversies, he frequently argued in a manner favourable to our side; and his writings contain various concessions on this subject, which if any one else had made them, would not be much to the satisfaction of our opposing brethren. However they may be inclined to represent us as verging towards Arminianism, it is certain Dr. Gill in his answer to Dr. Whitby, the noted Arminian, frequently makes use of our arguments; nor could he easily have gone through that work without them. (See his Cause of God and Truth, Part i. pp. 63, 69, 118, 159, 160, 165. Part ii. pp. 88, 211, 215, 222, 226. First edition.) And the very title of Mr. Brine's chief pamphlet against our sentiment, which he called, Motives to Love and Unity among Calvinists differing in opinion, as well as the most explicit acknowledgments therein contained, might teach those who pay any deference to his judgment, not to claim to themselves the title of Calvinists, exclusively." Defence of a Treatise, entitled, The Gospel of Christ worthy of all Acceptation, pp. 13, 14.

that by stretching what are usually called the doctrines of grace, beyond the scripture medium, they introduced a system of Hyper-Calvinism, which extended its baleful influence over nearly all the churches, and covered them with a cloud of darkness.

"From the moral inability which the oracles of truth ascribe to man in his fallen state, these divines were induced to divide moral and religious duties into two classes, natural and spiritual; comprehending under the latter, those which required spiritual or supernatural assistance to their performance; and under the former, those which demand no such assistance. Agreeable to this distinction, they conceived it to be the duty of all men to abstain from the outward acts of sin, to read the scriptures, to frequent the worship of God, and to attend, with serious assiduity, to the means of grace; but they supposed that repentance, faith in Christ, and the exercise of genuine internal devotion, were obligatory only on the regenerate. Hence their ministry consisted almost entirely of an exhibition of the peculiar mysteries of the gospel, with few or no addresses to the unconverted. They conceived themselves not warranted to urge them to repent and believe the gospel, those being spiritual duties, from whose obligation they were released by the inability contracted by the fall.”*

As a necessary consequence, the calls and invitations of the gospel were entirely overlooked; the scriptural view of saving faith, as consisting in the cordial reception of the record that God hath given of his Son, exchanged for the doctrine of appropriation; and the duty of man to believe whatever God reveals, totally denied. Nothing was now to be heard but the privileges of believers, or rather the privileges of those who had wrought themselves up to an assurance that they were of the number of the elect; and all attempts to call sinners to the obedience of faith, were stigmatized as savouring of Arminian legality.

The reflecting mind of Mr. Fuller was struck with this heterogeneous mixture of truth and error, and more especially when he contemplated its pernicious effects upon the churches. Like the chilling touch of the torpedo, it

*

Help to Zion's Travellers: a new edition, by Rev. Robert Hall: p. xix. Preface.

seemed to paralyze every arm that came in contact with it.

It was Mr. Fuller's misfortune, however, to have been initiated in these sentiments; and he afterwards lamented, as we have seen in the early part of his history, that he had long been kept in distress and darkness for want of clearer views of the nature of faith, and from having sat under a ministry which disavowed all direct addresses to the unconverted. For a time also his own preaching was greatly deficient in this article; and though he did not wholly refrain from such addresses, he sensibly felt their inconsistency with the notions entertained of human inability. He began to discern, that love was the fulfilling of the law; and that, in fact, men owed nothing to their Creator, or to one another, which is not comprehended in the exercise of love. He perceived that every thing short of the perfection of love, constituted men sinners; and that though depraved, we are as capable, if we were but inclined, to bestow our hearts upon God as upon the things of this world. He anticipated the effects which these views, if he should become confirmed in them, must produce on the strain of his preaching, and, therefore, moved on with slow and trembling steps.

It was a great injury to him, at this early period of his ministry, that his attention was diverted to other subjects of far inferior importance. The writings of Mr. Johnson of Liverpool were recommended to his notice, as well as some others on speculative points. The style of that author, he used to say, seemed to him then, very imposing, and much calculated to carry away young and inexperienced readers. His professed purpose to vindicate the Creator from being the author of sin, greatly prepossessed Mr. Fuller in favour of his opinions; but he soon found them destitute of scriptural authority. He saw, that as the grace manifested by Christ Jesus proceeded on the ground of the entrance of sin, and was purposed before the world began, that the permission of sin must also be the subject of divine determination; and as sin has in fact entered, prevailed, and reigned upon earth, he was satisfied that it could be no reproach to the holy Majesty of heaven and earth, decretively to permit what has actually taken place. The inconsistency with the divine perfections, if any there were, he perceived must be in permitting evil to exist, and not in his decree to do so and he was